Stronghold PvE - Heroic Encounters Feedback

commanderander

Welcome to the Stronghold, now get out there and fight! There are many heroic encounters on the Stronghold map, ranging from ones that can be done alone to others that require a full team.

Please post your feedback on anything related to Heroic Encounters in the Stronghold Map.

Please use the below format to submit bugs/feedback.

Type: Bug/Feedback (Please only choose one)
Please use “Bold” face text for the Type then type your feedback in the body of your post. If you are listing a bug please have this text in RED, if you are posting an opinion or feedback please use BLUE.
(Concise Feedback & Screen Shots are much appreciated)

Examples:
Bug: No Sympathy
The Pit Fiend was defeated but the quest didn't succeed.

Feedback: Bickering Beholders
I was able to get the Beholders stuck in geometry.

rinat114

Looks like you guys know about the Pit Fiend and the Giants being too easy and have addressed the situation. There aren't enough HE's on the map, I don't know if you have any plans to expand the amount or the frequency, but I think they need to happen simultaneity. A large HE of 20+ minutes and a smaller one. 2 - 3 HE's happening at a time will be ideal so the guild can split into groups and do them all, or else you gotta wait for everyone to arrive for that one single HE so can everyone can get a reward, then wait for the next one and do the same, which is inconvenient at the moment.

instynctive

Bug: No Sympathy
There are some "odd" collision issues with this HE. The columns on the platform have an extra-wide collision on them, which prevents the Fiend from becoming targetable if he's standing too close to one. I had grabbed a screenshot to illustrate (which didn't "take", I'll attempt another one the next time that HE comes up).

Also, the Pit Fiend likes to hide in rocks.



The whole Pit Fiend HE is screwy. The AI on him seems.. "off". He literally will just stand there and look at characters, even after we've attacked him with ranged weapons/spells. His big "defensive maneuver" of jumping backwards puts the fight behind the platform and severely limits the ability to see/fight and dodge.

I will concede that the Fiend might be too easy, as I can solo him with my 2.5k ilvl GWF. Well, assuming he stays on the platform. As soon as he jumps behind it, that complicates things.

I think that if someone could just jump in there and go a few rounds with the big guy that they'll see what I mean. Worst case scenario, skin a Shocktroop Devil and put that in there for now.

instynctive

Feedback: No Sympathy (Continued)
I just went another round with the pit fiend, since it's the only HE on the map I can solo. This time, I took nearly NO damage, since the fiend just literally stood there. My companion (a purple yeti) and I stood directly behind the fiend and about 9 minutes and a new diagnosis of carpal tunnel later, we won.

Twice, the fiend turned around, did his fire attack and the bash, and the rocks of doom thing, but that was all easily avoided. My yeti and I would simply move around to his back, and continue the onslaught.



Fellow players: please understand that I am nowhere NEAR BiS, nor is my GWF overpowered in the least. That yellow 161724 number you see is stacked. I'm running at just under 2.5k ilvl and none of my artifacts are higher than purple. I **promise** that I'm not trying to make things harder because I'm a wallet warrior whale and bored with how "easy" this game is. I would just like to see a better fight out of the pit fiend. He should have mopped up his little platform with me.

karistiana

Bug: No Sympathy
1st Solo Encounter: Pit Fiend remained stationary while being attacked from the steps. He literally just stood there. My companion was attacking him melee, and my CW was casting from the steps. Neither of us took any damage.

2nd Solo Encounter: Pit Fiend moved from platform but still had frequent moments of just standing there and not attacking. He reset while attempting to kite him in the open area right in front of the platform.

Duo Encounter: Pit Fiend became stuck in the rocks near the platform after he jumped back. My GF partner died and was heading back, so my SW was attempting to continue to fight him. I was unable to target him, and he just stood there. After maybe 15-30 seconds, he reset even though I was well within aggro range.

I don't think he will be that easy once the bugs are worked out because he has some powerful attacks, when he actually uses them that is.

instynctive

Feedback: Argemius the Cyclops
I'm not sure what's up with Mr. Cyclops. I was never given this particular challenge, yet it's telling me that the Challenge won't be be available for a couple days. Are these challenges on a strict timer, like the Vigilance quests, or do they reset when everything else does, and available all day?

instynctive

Feedback: The Builder
More oddities from The Builder.

instynctive

BUG: No Sympathy
Unable to target the Pit Fiend if he's too close to the pillars. There is an extra-wide collision on them.

karistiana

instynctive wrote: »

BUG: No Sympathy
Unable to target the Pit Fiend if he's too close to the pillars. There is an extra-wide collision on them.

Yep, that's what happened during the duo encounter I mentioned above. He ended up resetting with me right next to him because I couldn't get him to move from that position and he was taking no damage. It's like he no longer acknowledged my presence - rude.

instynctive

Feedback: No Sympathy
AWESOME job on this one, devs! I'm not going to give any spoilers, but.. this HE is wonderfully brutal now! Wiped out my 5-person party (GWF, SW, TR, CW, OP, ilvl ranged from 1.8k-2.8k) in no time.

deirein

Feedback: HE in general
I really like how they vary in difficulty now. There are 2-3 that can be done with two people, some require a few more, and then there are the biggest ones for which 5 guild members are not enough. Convenient and awesome!

juleadream

Yep, definitely pleased with a populated map... some HEs were soloable by my GF, some of them were a real challenge for a GF/HR/TR combo, and we didn't even LOOK at the biggest ones. The varying difficulty is great to accomodate different levels. I also like how the non-HE encounters work... I fought a group of spiders on the road, finished them off and saw something like "enemy incoming" flash on the screen and suddenly found myself fighting more of them. That was awesome!

obsidiancran3

Well I like the set up of the HEs I've looked at while solo on my OP. The enemy proportions and time given seem spot on for a small group of guild members on the minor HEs (2-3 depending on GS), however many don't seem to have their HE mobs and just have the regular mobs, making them easily soloable content now. (Which I appreciate for testing solo )

adriaen666

Bug: No Sympathy
After patch on Preview, the "No Sympathy" Heroic Encounters appeared to have two bosses (there was one before patch). The HP bars doesn't seem to appear at all:

dulcema

instynctive wrote: »

Feedback: Argemius the Cyclops
I'm not sure what's up with Mr. Cyclops. I was never given this particular challenge, yet it's telling me that the Challenge won't be be available for a couple days. Are these challenges on a strict timer, like the Vigilance quests, or do they reset when everything else does, and available all day?

The icon for the cylcops doesnt show up when you take the quest but he is located here. Same little pile of rocks to trigger him.

instynctive

Pile of *skulls.

beckylunatic

Bug - Kidnapping HE progress
I tackled a medium HE solo, not expecting to finish in time but to at least check it out. I was doing Homestead Kidnapping (sorry, didn't write down exact name). After defeating the first wave (rescuing 4 groups of people), nothing happened. The second wave of foes did not spawn. I'm not sure if every Kidnapping encounter would go down thast way or just this one.

Feedback - orc powers
The AP-draining orcs might be a little much. Powries have a rather long windup on this attack, with a very obvious telegraph, giving the player time to dodge or block or simply kill them. With the orcs, I'm still not entirely sure which of them has this power or which attack animations to avoid, and particularly in HEs, they have too much health for killing them quickly to be the solution. In fact, they survive long enough that they will drain AP over and over and over again. With some HEs, it seems that they'd have to be completed without actually using any dailies, the draining spam was so constant. It might be better with a group instead of just one person, but I think the cooldown needs a look, as does making it more obvious where this is coming from. I didn't get much of a look at the Witherer-style heal on the orcs, but it bears repeating that these powerful abilities were not overwhelming to average players only because they've previously been given to creatures that are otherwise very weak, and therefore quick to dispatch (somewhat less so since the mob health increase, depending on the player's ability to out-DPS them).

edit: formatting, which I now give up on

valwryn

beckylunatic wrote: »

The AP-draining orcs might be a little much. Powries have a rather long windup on this attack, with a very obvious telegraph, giving the player time to dodge or block or simply kill them. With the orcs, I'm still not entirely sure which of them has this power or which attack animations to avoid, and particularly in HEs, they have too much health for killing them quickly to be the solution. In fact, they survive long enough that they will drain AP over and over and over again. With some HEs, it seems that they'd have to be completed without actually using any dailies, the draining spam was so constant. It might be better with a group instead of just one person, but I think the cooldown needs a look, as does making it more obvious where this is coming from. I didn't get much of a look at the Witherer-style heal on the orcs, but it bears repeating that these powerful abilities were not overwhelming to average players only because they've previously been given to creatures that are otherwise very weak, and therefore quick to dispatch (somewhat less so since the mob health increase, depending on the player's ability to out-DPS them).

The Eye of Gruumsh is the one that has the AP drain. Is ya see a red circle on the ground.....just step away, if ya can. As a paladin, I'm already used to getting drain'd constantly by them, ....no biggie. At least I can keep the drain focus'd on me. The Orc Shaman is the one that full heals. Take out the Shaman first or you won't beat the clock.

beckylunatic

Ok, then the AP drain is tied to the attack that used to be a prone, I think. They always could chain-spam that one pretty obnoxiously, and it's a very fast cast. Considering how often they are in pairs or groups, and how often they are mixed with the battle-tested orcs and such that also create red areas on the ground, it can be really difficult to tell where exactly the red is that you need to get the heck out of. Also, the orc are still tossing out prones and knockbacks very rapidly, which makes it harder to avoid the AP drain.

I thought it was something the shamans were doing until I saw one of them healing.

valwryn

While everyone in my guild is farming HEs for Influence for Guild Hall Rank 2, I've notice'd a pattern. I tested it out with 3 different toons....all the same. What drops from HEs goes in order and drops in size as more HEs are completed. I was just attacking the small HEs mostly by myself. The small ones are not easy, I just eat a bowl of Awesome'Os every morning, so no need to fix them. :*

The HE drops go in this order:

1. 15 Influence
2. 15 Relics
3. 15 Research
4. 15 Supplies
5. Order repeats with 10 of each
6. Order repeats with 5 of each
7. Only get potion and enchant (nothing else)

I don't know if this is Daily limit or if there's a cooldown. I haven't tried out the higher level HEs to see if they have their own pattern or if this is universal. Maybe one of you can confirm this, should you decide to take on this dangerous job.

instynctive

Hey guys.. in regards to the Eye of Gruumsh monsters "telegraphic" their attacks, there's a fairly solid rhythm to them.

What I've been seeing is 3 or 4 strikes with their spear.. then they stop and raise their left hand (paw?). At that point, a red circle forms on the ground and a red icon appears over your head. When that red icon comes down on you, your AP get drained.

valwryn

The increase in Shard rewards is greatly appreciated.

valwryn

I'm only getting Influence Shards from the HE's. They come with a rank 5 enchanment in this amount of Influence (60, 30, 15, 10, 5) and then 3 straight with only an enchant. Our target build also requires Relics and now they're nowhere.

commanderander

valwryn wrote: »

I'm only getting Influence Shards from the HE's. They come with a rank 5 enchanment in this amount of Influence (60, 30, 15, 10, 5) and then 3 straight with only an enchant. Our target build also requires Relics and now they're nowhere.

Hi Valwryn,

We're going to be deprecating Relics, Research, and Supplies in favor of just having Influence. This has been done on the rewards side and is an ongoing task to finish on the Structures side.

valwryn

Gotcha Boss. It'll take us until Friday to get enough Influence anyway.

beckylunatic

That seems like a sensible change. Simpler and easier on bag space.

karakla1

Is it possible to activate or deactivate the timer for specific heroic encounter?
Exammple: I wanted to save some supplies, got 2 minutes left till the heroic encounter runs out of time. Killed all the bad orcs and only waited that the orcs send reinforcements to kill me and get their stolen supplies back. I simply couldn't complete the HE because it takes a while till the enemies spawn and i kill them.

I understand the timer but if i am already on the winning side why is a timer that runs out of time a penalty for me?
I mean the map is big, to get to an Heroic encounter takes time and it takes also time to complete it, so at the end you only going to Heroic encounters with like 10+ minutes left on it while maybe closer ones have like 1 minute. So you are in time for the "distress call" but lose anyway.

I hope it is understandable what i mean.

beckylunatic

I think you need to approach Stronghold HEs from a perspective of "Do I/we have time to finish this?" and not start if the answer is no.

5 minutes on the small ones is still doable if your DPS is high enough, and their respawn rate is very fast. These should permit completion of the daily even if you're alone.

With the larger ones, I think the best approach is probably to organize your group first, start with whatever encounter is newest, and plan what to do next according to how effectively you're finding yourselves able to complete them.

karakla1

The question is: Why should it run out of time at a certain point?

The current system forces us to abadone specific heroic encounter across the map that are too far away or forces us ti abadone heroic encounters in the first place because it is not enough time left.

I mean the system could have a mechanic that if you make it to a different phase of the Heroic Encounter you get like +5 minutes.

instynctive

Oddly.. I have no issues getting to and finishing any HE on the map that I want to attempt.. Keep an eye on the mini-map.. it will alert you to a new HE.

commanderander

karakla1 wrote: »

Is it possible to activate or deactivate the timer for specific heroic encounter?
Exammple: I wanted to save some supplies, got 2 minutes left till the heroic encounter runs out of time. Killed all the bad orcs and only waited that the orcs send reinforcements to kill me and get their stolen supplies back. I simply couldn't complete the HE because it takes a while till the enemies spawn and i kill them.

I understand the timer but if i am already on the winning side why is a timer that runs out of time a penalty for me?
I mean the map is big, to get to an Heroic encounter takes time and it takes also time to complete it, so at the end you only going to Heroic encounters with like 10+ minutes left on it while maybe closer ones have like 1 minute. So you are in time for the "distress call" but lose anyway.

I hope it is understandable what i mean.

Hi karakla,

This was some feedback that also came up during our internal playtests late in development. While I do agree it is a good idea, we currently do not have the time to both implement this and have it be stable for launch. I can't promise that it will ever happen (given the nature of game development), but it is a feature that I am keeping fresh in my mind for quality of life. `